Out of state investments

[Paul Vu]

Hoping someone could guide me. I am very new to real estate investing. 

I am interested in mult-family rentals. However, I live in california and the prices here are very high. I do not see a way to make any money investing here. It seems like my money can go further elsewhere.

My questions...without knowing anyone out of state, how can I get started in out of state investments? What is your best 3 tips? What books should I read? How do you study and analyze an out of state area from where you live? I want to take the advice of start now but it is definitely hard to do with market being high and not knowing what exactly is a good deal. 

Also, Ive been listening to the bigger pockets podcast alot. I dream to do the things these great people are doing with RE investments. But I noticed that a lot of the people got in / started at around the crash. They either got burned by it and was able to start over when things were low and come out on top or they got in at the right time. Is there still room for newbies like myself?